Scrolling on a web page feels very natural. Websites that scroll work so well on these trendy ipads and phones making it a joy to browse the web. Having recently required these future devices I have really come to appreciate the joy of the scroll. I have also wasted a few good hours using the scroll wheel looking through tumblr pages.
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Golly. The New Year has started in an epic format at curlytowers ™ I know you are bored of hearing me moan about how busy it is…so I wont.
These last two weeks have just been a joy. So many people bobbing in, wonderful people, all looking to just get cracking with their businesses. They aren’t interested in hiring a company to spend hours round a whiteboard brainstorming strategy and synergy, dont give a flying flipple flapple about an 80 page SEO report, dont give an electric monkey’s purse about which shade of green is most lonely…they just want to push their business on, get some people looking at their website, and make some sales. No fuss, no messing around, just getting down to the bare facts…I love this.
I’m going to stop before I ramble on and on about this, I’m far too passionate about a more informal approach to doing business that im only a glass of wine away from setting up some form of anti-whiteboard association.
Have a lovely weekend, thank you for reading, lots of exciting news to come
Hello there blog fans. How are you? I have an internal blog dilema I’d like to share.
Official business blog guidelines from the Official Ministry of Business Matters (OMBM) state a blog should contain news on your industry, insights in to the current affairs of the moment.
I’ll be honest with you. I dont get excited when I hear a new font has been developed, a new colour mixed or a new type of paper is out that is slightly thicker than a thinner one.
Dear reader (and you are very dear to us if you read our blog), dear reader I am hoping you think the same as I do on the Blog debate. Are you really interested in how Starbucks slightly updated their logo? Are you interested in reading about a fantastic new CSS method of making something curvy?
I hope not.
Please don’t get me wrong, that new curvy CSS dodah is fantastic.
I (and I think ‘us’ as a little company) would rather share our inspiration, what gets us up in the morning and those little things that excite us…and possibly a few rants now and then on companies spending £560,000,000 to slightly lighten up the green on a logo.
I’ll stop this Saturday rant and get to what inspired this posting.
Im a rather late to the music of James, but after hearing this on the Early Early Chris Hawkins breakfast show (bbc radio 6 – does this make me trendy? – I hope not)…After hearing this I have more or less had it on loop.
I hope you enjoy, I know somebody forcing you to listen to something they think is wonderful and you hate is horrible, but listen to the words, have a look at the pictures and do your best.
Have a lovely Evening
I’ll be back soon on that curvy CSS thing
I thought the time may be right to have a rant about social media and possibly make a few enemies with social media companies.
We say it as it is here at Curlytowers ™ . We aren’t going to take any of your money for something we don’t think is going to work. We won’t recommend anything we don’t think is right for you just because we can get some money out of you.
Just this last week I talked two potential clients out a social media campaign.
Why? Because they couldn’t commit the time or budget to it.
It’s the hot button, the toasty crumpet, the tasty shoe of the moment…social media. “Get yourself on twitter, get yourself on facebook, myspace, youtube, beboo, whichhat and bigtank* and get business” They shout (Im not sure who they are, but they are out there).
I’m afraid it not quite that easy. Signing up for an account and creating a profile will do nothing (it could have a tiny tiny bit of SEO power)
Even worse would be signing up for an account and then starting to prattle on about your services and offers…nobody cares…nobody is taking any notice and you are going to damage your brand.
“So how should I do this Social Media Mr. smarty pants**”
Well its quite easy, but takes a large chunk of time. You need to get involved in the community. You need to talk to people, ask questions, answer questions…talk about things completely nothing to do with your new fantastic offer or service. Be a nice person, be respected. Build up a reputation.
Then and only then can you start to introduce your business and services.
If you can afford the time to devote to social media it is a wonderful way to bring in visitors and business. Used in a spammy way will be a waste of time and scare people away
*some of these may not exist
** my pants are not smart today
Gosh it looks like its gonna be another busy one this week. I’ve had to help with the web design as there is plenty to do and I have been learning lots about the ye olde photoshop. Building on knowledge gathered many moons ago. Not only I’m I a SEO master I’m now becoming a web design wizard to!
This Monday has been busy with logo design flying around and and people bobbing by. We have even had a spider attack in the towers, which was very carefully placed outside of the office windows (yes we have more then one!) Oh and we have spaced out our coffee intake with a strategically tea placed between them. As to much coffee can send us crazy.
Well back to work as design is happening as I type.
Having just watched the final episodes of ‘The Tudors’ last week, we at curly towers were talking about how much we do enjoy a good bit of tasty history. In the Tudors we enjoyed the glorious visuals of the clothes, the rooms and the items. I enjoyed the series so much that it made me feel a strong desire to go buy a big, heavy book about England post-Henry VIII so I can find out more.
I find the best way to describe it is, it is a feast for your eyes, ears and brain, with deep visuals, a lovely soundtrack and your learning about history (although not everything is fact)
Here is the opening titles for you to enjoy!
I wished they carried on with his children and get to see Elizabeth become Queen although the films do that rather well.
Other periods of time I enjoy are, Roman, Empire, Victorian and WW2.
Well its back to the SEO machine to crank out some more back links!
We are a rather small company. We work from a lovely office that we adore upstairs in the wonderful Remedy Centre in Preston (they can fix anything thats bothering you!) We are extremely proud of the fact that we have a sign outside.
We believe in what we term the business rules of ‘cricket’ or fair play. We treat our clients exactly as we would like to be treated. If we were running a business and wanted some design work / seo / graphic design we would want:
When it boils down to it, we don’t charge very much. True, you can get websites and design work done cheaper from freelancers and certainly offshore. But you can also pay a lot (LOT) more. In the past week we have had wonderful people bob by who have been quoted at least 400% more than our quotation.
We strongly believe you may not have to pay a large amount of money. The web and general technology is moving on at such a rapid pace, developments such as wordpress, joomla and other fantastic content management systems enable the costs of webdesign to plummet. We want to pass these savings on to you.
If you want a completely bespoke website build, built from scratch, that has taken weeks of design and flipcharting we may not be the guys for you. If you want somebody to spend weeks agonising over a brand, pouring over font books, researching colours, trends and curves, we may not be the guys for you.
We’ve been working with local clients now for over ten years. We have formed some fantastic relationships. What gets us up in the morning is knowing we are making a difference to small businesses looking to grow. We don’t have a trendy office, we don’t have trendy cars, and we don’t do lunch meetings with trendy coffee. We are far from corporate, and as you have just learnt, only recently purchased a calendar.
If you are looking for down to earth, friendly people to work with, please give us a call.
I do hope I havent rambled on too long!
Enjoy your weekends
Ive just returned from two completely different experiences, completely polar approaches to the very same thing.
The experience in question is something that causes me great distress every few years….buying a car and in particular the salesmen.
(this blog does relate to web design and design, please stay with me!)
The first garage was a rather premium car garage, I had a browse around and along came the salesman. Being a premium garage I was expecting quite a good experience, nothing too pushy. Oh gosh how I was wrong. The man wanted a sale and wanted it right then, the figures magically lost £20, then another £20… this I cant stand. But being the polite gentleman I politely said I’d think about it and was then accused of thinking too much.
Neadless to say I have no intention of buying a car from them now or ever. They have lost me as a customer.
Then onwards to the garage down the road. It was a slice of heaven in comparison. Greeted by a lovely chap who had a chat with us about this and that, he let us wander in piece, when ready we wandered inside to get some numbers, which were provided without hassle, stress and pushiness. I felt at piece, I felt wanted, valued and appreciated.
I’m going back tomorrow for a test drive and would adore to buy something from them.
…now the web design bit.
Id like to think of Curlykale as that second garage, we never ever push for sales, we don’t haggle, we don’t pester and will always give you our best price. Always here at the end of the phone for a chat, we appreciate each and everyone of our clients. We may not have the best show room, we don’t have the best coffee, but if you are looking for honest, friendly, approachable people to work with for your design needs, Curlykale will always be there for you.
Have a lovely weekend